Hon Cruz Reynoso

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<h3 style=" background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.6;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Legal_practice">Legal practice</span><span class="mw-editsection" style=" user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style=" margin-right: 0.25em; color: rgb(84, 89, 93);">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Grodin&action=edit&section=3&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Legal practice" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style=" margin-left: 0.25em; color: rgb(84, 89, 93);">]</span></span></h3>

<p style=" margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Grodin returned to California in 1955 and joined <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathew_Tobriner" title="Mathew Tobriner" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Tobriner</a>'s law firm.<sup id="cite_ref-quarterly_3-10" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-quarterly-3" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup> His clients included union boss <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dubinsky" title="David Dubinsky" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">David Dubinsky</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-quarterly_3-11" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-quarterly-3" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup> In 1959, Grodin became a partner after both Tobriner and Leland Lazarus were appointed to the bench by Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Brown" title="Pat Brown" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Pat Brown</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-quarterly_3-12" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-quarterly-3" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup> Grodin began teaching labor law part-time at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,Hastings_College_of_Law" class="mw-redirect" title="University of California, Hastings College of Law" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">University of California, Hastings College of Law</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-bancroft_2-5" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-bancroft-2" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[2]</a></sup> Wanting to visit his close friend, future Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_A.Linde" title="Hans A. Linde" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Hans A. Linde</a>, in 1970 Grodin took a year off from the firm to teach at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oregon_School_of_Law" title="University of Oregon School of Law" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">University of Oregon School of Law</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-quarterly_3-13" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-quarterly-3" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup> When Grodin returned to San Francisco he began teaching full-time at UC Hastings.<sup id="cite_ref-bancroft_2-6" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-bancroft-2" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-4" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[4]</a></sup>

The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Agricultural_Labor_Relations_Board" title="California Agricultural Labor Relations Board" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">California Agricultural Labor Relations Board</a> had just been created after a hard fought campaign by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez" title="Cesar Chavez" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Cesar Chavez</a> and California Secretary of Agriculture <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Bird" title="Rose Bird" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Rose Bird</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-bancroft_2-7" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-bancroft-2" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[2]</a></sup> Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown" title="Jerry Brown" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Jerry Brown</a>, a Yale Law School graduate who clerked for Justice Tobriner, needed a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teamsters" class="mw-redirect" title="Teamsters" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Teamsters</a> voice on the board so he appointed Grodin, serving alongside future Cardinal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Mahony" title="Roger Mahony" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Roger Mahony</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-bancroft_2-8" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-bancroft-2" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[2]</a></sup> Relations were contentious; the board was picketed by opposing sides at the same time and was shouted down in a Teamsters hall in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salinas,_California" title="Salinas, California" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Salinas, California</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-bancroft_2-9" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-bancroft-2" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[2]</a></sup> When the legislature stopped paying board members, Grodin resigned.<sup id="cite_ref-bancroft_2-10" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-bancroft-2" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[2]</a></sup> Regardless, in July 1979 Governor Brown appointed Grodin to a newly created seat on Division One of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Court_of_Appeal" class="mw-redirect" title="California Court of Appeal" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">California Court of Appeal</a>, First District.<sup id="cite_ref-quarterly_3-14" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-quarterly-3" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup></p>

<h3 style=" background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.6;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Judicial_service">Judicial service</span><span class="mw-editsection" style=" user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style=" margin-right: 0.25em; color: rgb(84, 89, 93);">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Grodin&action=edit&section=4&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Judicial service" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style=" margin-left: 0.25em; color: rgb(84, 89, 93);">]</span></span></h3>

<p style=" margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Grodin displayed unfamiliarity with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Penal_Code" title="California Penal Code" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">California Penal Code</a> at his first writ conference, Justice John Racanelli suggested he needed to "do a little homework."<sup id="cite_ref-quarterly_3-15" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-quarterly-3" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup> Grodin was further humbled when he had to dissent in the first labor case he heard, despite citing a book he had written on the topic.<sup id="cite_ref-quarterly_3-16" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-quarterly-3" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup> Governor Brown promoted Grodin to Presiding Justice on Division Two of the California Court of Appeal, First District, in March 1982. While in Sacramento, defense attorney <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Hallinan" title="Terence Hallinan" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Terence Hallinan</a> convinced Grodin to give notorious farm worker serial killer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Corona" title="Juan Corona" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Juan Corona</a> a new trial. Affirming the judgment, the Supreme Court largely quoted from Grodin's opinion.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-5" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[5]</a></sup>

Governor Brown appointed Grodin to the California Supreme Court in December 1982.<sup id="cite_ref-Hearn_1-1" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-Hearn-1" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[1]</a></sup> With Grodin, Governor Brown had appointed all but two of the court's justices. When Grodin and a bare majority of the court found the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Arbitration_Act" title="Federal Arbitration Act" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Federal Arbitration Act</a> did not apply to California’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franchising" title="Franchising" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">franchising</a> statute, he was reversed by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Supreme_Court" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Supreme Court" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">U.S. Supreme Court</a> in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southland_Corp.v._Keating" title="Southland Corp. v. Keating" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Southland Corp. v. Keating</a></i> (1982). On the court, Grodin compiled a solid liberal record, voting mostly with Chief Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Bird" title="Rose Bird" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Rose Bird</a>. He was considered supportive of trial lawyers and defense attorneys, while seeming skeptical of law enforcement and business interests. He was opposed to the death penalty.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-6" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[6]</a></sup>

The public at the time was highly critical of court's criminal justice jurisprudence. When the court abolished the death penalty in <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_v.Anderson" title="People v. Anderson" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">People v. Anderson</a></i> (1972) the electorate restored it with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_17(1972)" title="California Proposition 17 (1972)" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">California Proposition 17 (1972)</a>and expanded it with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_7(1978)" title="California Proposition 7 (1978)" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">California Proposition 7 (1978)</a>. While the court upheld Proposition 17, now Chief Justice Rose Bird and Justice Torbriner dissented.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-7" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[7]</a></sup> Nevertheless, Chief Justice Bird, a former public defender, voted to reverse every single one of the sixty-one death penalty cases she heard, usually joined by Justices <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruz_Reynoso" title="Cruz Reynoso" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Cruz Reynoso</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Broussard" title="Allen Broussard" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Allen Broussard</a>, and Grodin. She dissented from allowing a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victims%27_rights" title="Victims' rights" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">victims' rights</a> amendment to the constitution, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8(1982)" title="California Proposition 8 (1982)" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Proposition 8 (1982)</a>, to even appear on the ballot.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-8" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[8]</a></sup> After it passed, Justice Grodin dissented in part along with Chief Justice Bird when a bare majority of the court upheld the proposition.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-9" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[9]</a></sup>

The court drew continuing public ire for its treatment of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_ballot_proposition" title="California ballot proposition" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">direct democracy</a>. When the electorate had exercised a 1982 veto referendum against what voters saw as Jerry Brown's gerrymandered <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redistricting_in_California" title="Redistricting in California" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">redistricting plan</a>, a bare majority of the court ordered the Governor's plan to be used anyway.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-10" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[10]</a></sup> Grodin joined the anonymous majority blocking voters’ subsequent attempt to redistrict directly through a 1983 proposition, even as dissenting Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_K._Richardson" title="Frank K. Richardson" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Frank K. Richardson</a> inveighed the court “slams the door to the polling place in the face of the people”.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-11" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[11]</a></sup> The court was attacked for these rulings as being partisan and overly political.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-12" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[12]</a></sup> Grodin joined the liberal majority when it granted the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_Labor" title="American Federation of Labor" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">American Federation of Labor</a>’s 1984 original petition to block a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_budget_amendment" title="Balanced budget amendment" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">balanced budget amendment</a> proposition from even appearing on the ballot.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-13" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[13]</a></sup></p>

<h3 style=" background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.6;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Retention_election">Retention election</span><span class="mw-editsection" style=" user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style=" margin-right: 0.25em; color: rgb(84, 89, 93);">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Grodin&action=edit&section=5&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Retention election" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style=" margin-left: 0.25em; color: rgb(84, 89, 93);">]</span></span></h3>

<p style=" margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">California Supreme Court justices must be confirmed by the electorate at the first election for governor after their appointment. No incumbent had been defeated since Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_G.Finlayson" title="Frank G. Finlayson" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Frank G. Finlayson</a> in 1926.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-14" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[14]</a></sup>Nevertheless, Chief Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Bird" title="Rose Bird" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Rose Bird</a>, Jerry Brown’s Secretary of Agriculture and a former public defender, was only supported by 51.7% of voters in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,1978" title="California gubernatorial election, 1978" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">1978 general election</a>, the same ballot that passed Proposition 17.

New Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Deukmejian" title="George Deukmejian" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">George Deukmejian</a>, who as Attorney General had voted to approve Grodin's appointment to the appeals and supreme court benches, was furious at the court’s interference in redistricting, tax reform, and ballot propositions.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-15" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[15]</a></sup> Capitalizing on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic" title="Moral panic" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">moral panic</a> over the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_epidemic" title="Crack epidemic" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">crack epidemic</a> and the public’s intense dislike of Jerry Brown, Governor Deukmejian began a campaign to recall “Jerry’s Justices” by labeling them <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_on_crime" class="mw-redirect" title="Soft on crime" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">soft on crime</a> and overly political in their rulings. California prosecutors, upset that there had been zero executions since the electorate restored the death penalty, released a white paper attacking the justices as biased in favor of criminal defendants and trial lawyers. Commercial attorneys followed, releasing a paper accusing the court of being beholden to big labor.

Grodin did have some campaign experience. He had served as treasurer on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_McCarthy" title="Eugene McCarthy" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Eugene McCarthy</a>’s presidential campaign and had himself made an unsuccessful run for the Berkeley City Council.<sup id="cite_ref-bancroft_2-11" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-bancroft-2" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[2]</a></sup> He raised money from labor unions and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Attorneys_of_California" title="Consumer Attorneys of California" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">California Trial Lawyers Association</a>, and the state police union ran a TV ad endorsing Grodin.<sup id="cite_ref-quarterly_3-17" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-quarterly-3" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[3]</a></sup> Nevertheless, his was outspent by his opponents and suffered from a series of TV attack ads highlighting the victims in murder sentences he had overturned.

Justice Grodin was removed by the California electorate at his first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,_1986" title="California gubernatorial election, 1986" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">retention election</a> in 1986.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-16" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[16]</a></sup> Grodin was supported by 43.4% of voters, while Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruz_Reynoso" title="Cruz Reynoso" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Cruz Reynoso</a> was supported by 39.8%, and Chief Justice Rose Bird was supported by 33.8%. Deukmejian, who had won reelection in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_effect" title="Bradley effect" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">surprise landslide</a>, was now free to appoint a majority of the court. California still did not carry out an execution until 1992. Grodin returned to being a law professor at UC Hastings and has written extensively about the need to abolish judicial elections.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style=" line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grodin#cite_note-17" style=" text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[17]</a></sup></p>

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<div><a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140876184/at-age-80-trailblazer-keeps-fighting-for-justice"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140876184/at-age-80-trailblazer-keeps-fighting-for-justice</font></a></div>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Director Abby Ginzberg chronicles the remarkable life of Cruz Reynoso, a trailblazer in the legal system and a champion of agricultural workers. He was California's first Latino Supreme Court justice and one of America's first Latino law professors. President Bill Clinton appointed him as Vice Chair on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1994 and awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. Reynoso's career also included controversial relationships and encounters with labor activist Cesar Chavez and then-California Governor Ronald Reagan.</font>

<span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Early life and education</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cruz Reynoso was born to a family of migrant farm workers in Brea, California. He had 10 siblings. His family often traveled north to pick crops, to make ends meet.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time, many boys in migrant farm families quit school at age 16 to work in the fields, and Reynoso's mother expected the same for her children.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But Reynoso pursued a different path: education. He won a scholarship to Pomona College and earned a </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">law degree in 1958 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the only Latino to graduate in his class</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Around that time, Senator Robert Kennedy brought national attention to the issues of farm workers by holding Senate subcommittee hearings about labor abuses in California's Central Valley.</font></p>

<div class="enlarge-options" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><button class="enlargebtn" style="text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-appearance: none; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; text-indent: -999em; cursor: pointer; user-select: none; display: block; position: absolute; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; height: 27px; width: 27px; background-image: url(" media.npr.org="media.npr.org" chrome="chrome" icon_enlarge.png="icon_enlarge.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Enlarge this image</font></button></div>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 20px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 55.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cruz Reynoso in El Centro as young lawyer.</font></p>

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<span class="credit" aria-label="Image credit" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.7; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Courtesy of Cruz Reynoso</font></span></div>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Young lawyers who were inspired by Kennedy's call to lift poor agricultural workers from poverty formed the California Rural Legal Association (CRLA</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">). But all the original members were white, something that CRLA leaders saw as a barrier to the organization's effectiveness. The group felt it needed more Spanish-speaking lawyers who could directly communicate with farm workers. They also needed a leader who could connect with both those workers and government officials. That leader was Cruz Reynoso. He became the group's first Latino lawyer, and later rose to become director in 1969.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the time, the farm workers movement was launched by Reynoso's former colleague Cesar Chavez (they worked together in the early 1960s at the Community Service Organization). Chavez and Dolores Huerta formed the United Farm Workers Union. Chavez lead boycotts, marches and nonviolent demonstrations — and thought CRLA would be committed to his agenda. But Reynoso insisted that CRLA remain independent, and act always as lawyers, not organizers.</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After becoming California governor, Ronald Reagan accused CRLA of undermining the rights of agricultural business owners and using the organization to interfere in politics. He attempted to cut off almost $2 million in federal funding for the organization. The fight gained national attention and lasted three years.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The battle about CRLA was more of a part of national battle to try to restrict the ability of lawyers to adequately represent poor people in legal services," said University of New Mexico Law Professor Jose L. Martinez in the film.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But CRLA prevailed, largely with the help of Reynoso.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then in 1972, Reynoso began teaching law at the University of New Mexico. He became one of the nation's first Latino law professors, and devoted tremendous energy to bringing more Hispanic students and staff into that institution. Reynoso said in the film that he imagined spending the rest of his life teaching there.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But back in California, Ronald Reagan's term as governor expired. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, rose into the position that had been held by a Republican for eight years. Brown offered Reynoso a seat on the California Court of Appeals. Reynoso accepted and spent the next six years there.</font></p>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March 1982, Reynoso was appointed to the California Supreme Court. Several of the court's subsequent rulings favored rights of employees, criminal defendants, consumers, and the poor. At a time when the death penalty was a heated issue, the court affirmed most convictions, but not the death sentences of several inmates. Critics accused it of being soft on crime..</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Chief Justice Rose Bird came up for reconfirmation in 1996, conservative opponents wanted to change the Democratic court's direction. They needed three new conservative justices to accomplish that, and launched a campaign against Bird, Reynoso and Associate Justice Joseph Grodin.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"All of those who were attacking the courts were Republicans. The Democrats were so afraid of the death penalty issue that none of them came to our support," said Reynoso in the film.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Golden Gate Law School Dean Dru Ramsey added in the film, "The people who were attacking the court were people who were politically motivated, who did not really care at all about the role of the judiciary or an independent judiciary — an impartial judiciary. What they wanted were people in those seats who would vote the way that they wanted them to vote."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bird, Grodin and Reynoso were ultimately ousted. But that did not stop Reynoso from fighting injustices.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1996, President Bill Clinton appointed Reynoso to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, then awarded him the Presidential Medal of Honor in the year 2000.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the award ceremony, Clinton remarked on Reynoso's remarkable journey from a poor childhood, to the top of his profession: "As a child, he loved reading so much, his elementary school classmates called him 'el profe' — 'the professor.' Later, some told him to put aside his dreams of college, saying bluntly, "They will never let you in." But with faith in himself and the values of our country, Cruz Reynoso went onto college and to law school but never forgot his roots."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, Reynoso is 80 years old and teaches law three days a week at the University of California, Davis.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A UC Davis law student featured in the film, Walid Kandeel, said, "It's been great to have Professor Reynoso as a professor at law school because of the way he engages students in issues of race and social justice. I came to law school and wanted to be a public interest lawyer, and to hear all the great things that he's been able to accomplish in that field is absolutely inspiring for me as a young attorney getting started in that field."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an interview with NPR's Jacki Lyden, Reynoso said he keeps going because he's done it all his life.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I think it's good if you have a pattern of activity that works for you, and I've always felt that as long as God provides a mind that works and a body that works, you're better off being active," said Reynoso.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He remains involved in government and law in California. For example, he serves on one commission that is trying to improve the state government in California, and another that is investigating the fatal shooting of a farm worker by undercover police officers.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"So I'm active in many fronts, and I'm very pleased to do that. It deals with the reality that in any society, there are going to be people who have resources and political influence, and they like it that way. And there are many people who lack those important items in society. So it's up to us who have a little bit of training to try to equalize matters somewhat," said Reynoso.</font></p>

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